GM Reports June Sales; 70K Over Toyota; Truck Sales Down 17%; Mkt Share +2 Points

[Perian]

Link: http://media.gm.com/servlet/GatewayS...=2&docid=46752

GM Reports 265,937 Deliveries in June

(Monthly comparison percentages are sales day-adjusted unless noted.)

* Chevrolet car retail sales increase of 24 Percent: Malibu up 129 Percent and Cobalt up 27 percent compared with last June
* Pontiac retail sales up 14 percent driven by G6 up 27 percent, Vibe up 24 percent, G5 and Solstice up 6 percent
* Saturn retail sales up 9 percent with Vue up 100 percent, Sky up 66 percent and Aura up 45 percent
* Hybrid sales continue to grow with more than 1,100 delivered in June
* GM market share estimated 2 points above May and up slightly compared with June 2007

DETROIT – GM today announced June sales results, highlighted by an 8 percent rise in retail car sales and continued strong performance in crossovers. Despite the significant decline of industry market volume and the limited availability of some of GM’s most popular models, GM dealers in the United States delivered 265,937 vehicles in June, down 8 percent (18.5 percent unadjusted). Truck sales declined 6 percent.

“We’re doing all we can to meet customer demand for our popular crossovers and cars, including increasing overtime or adding Saturday shifts at the plants where we build the Malibu, Aura, G6, Enclave, Outlook, Acadia and our full-size vans,” said Mark LaNeve, vice president, GM North America Vehicle Sales, Service and Marketing. “Hybrid demand and availability continues to build, and we’re seeing really positive momentum with the Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC Yukon 2-mode hybrids. While the truck market continues to be impacted by the sudden rise in fuel prices, our offerings from Chevrolet, GMC and Cadillac continue to lead their respective segments in fuel economy and that is a decided advantage for those shopping for those vehicles. We expect our market share performance to be very strong compared with April and May.”

Chevrolet Malibu total sales were up 95 percent with retail sales up 129 percent, Cobalt sales were up 37 percent total and 27 percent retail, HHR was up 39 percent total and 70 percent retail, Equinox was up 64 percent total and 42 percent retail, while Suburban and Tahoe were both up in total sales – 13 and 1 percent respectively.

Pontiac retail sales were up 14 percent led by G6 up 27 percent, Vibe up 24 percent, G5 and Solstice were up 6 percent compared with June 2007.

The Saturn division had strong sales in June with Sky total sales up 62 percent, Aura up 41 percent and Vue up 40 percent. The Astra had sales of nearly 900 vehicles.

Cadillac had a strong performance with CTS total sales increasing 31 percent and a retail increase of 10 percent compared with the same month a year ago. SRX and STS both had 26 percent total sales increases.

GM’s popular crossover Buick Enclave, GMC Acadia and Saturn Outlook together accounted for more than 8,800 vehicle sales in the month as demand for the vehicles continues to strain available supply.

GM hybrid vehicles continue to gain in popularity in the marketplace with 547 hybrid Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC Yukon 2-mode SUVs delivered. There were 295 Chevrolet Malibu, 30 Saturn Aura and 277 Vue hybrids sold in June. For the month, a total of 1,149 hybrid vehicles were delivered, with 4,376 hybrids sold so far this year.

“Make no mistake about this … Asian automakers do not have a monopoly on fuel efficient vehicles. We have a full lineup of vehicles – including five hybrid models -- that provide industry-leading value, great fuel economy and the best warranty coverage of any full-line automaker,” LaNeve added. “Every month, more and more customers are choosing our brands when shopping for a high value, fuel efficient vehicle.”

GM has aggressively managed inventories to low levels. In June, only about 788,000 vehicles were in stock, down about 267,000 vehicles compared with last June. The 72 Hour Sale at the end of June was targeted at the 2008 vehicles left in inventory. Combined full-size pickup and utility inventory is down about 124,000 vehicles compared with June a year ago. The sale helped rebalance inventory to a stronger car mix. There were about 238,000 cars and 550,000 trucks in inventory at the end of June. GM also revised its 2008 industry annual sales forecast to approximately 15.0 million total vehicle SAAR, down from the mid-15 million total vehicle SAAR range estimated earlier this year. The continuing impact of higher fuel prices and lack of robust economic growth led to the revision.

General Motors holds off Toyota in June US sales
Tuesday July 1, 2:22 pm ET
By Tom Krisher and Dee-Ann Durbin, AP Auto Writers
General Motors holds off Toyota in June sales, but reports drop of 18.2 percent

DETROIT (AP) -- General Motors Corp. outsells Toyota Motor Corp. in June to retain its traditional U.S. sales lead, even though GM says its sales dropped 18.2 percent for the month.

Toyota sales had fallen 21.4 percent for the month. Both companies were hurt by a sluggish economy and poor sales of trucks and sport utility vehicles.

GM on Tuesday reported selling 262,329 vehicles for the month, compared with Toyota's 193,234.

For the first half of the year, GM sales were down 16.3 percent compared with the year-ago period. Toyota sales were down 6.8 percent for the first six months of the year.

[56 Starchief]

Sounds better than we all thought...still far from safe yet...

...now Ford on the other hand...

[T-Type]

Considering the state of the economy, this appears to be rather good news for GM. However I see no mention of Trucks/SUVs. I imagine it's a bloodbath.

[Perian]

Originally Posted by Buick61

You didn't post the link. I know you wanted to be the first to post this, but make sure it's ready first!

http://media.gm.com/servlet/GatewayS...=3&docid=46752

Forgive me.

I was buying GM stock at the same time.

[I-Love-Pontiac]

What does adjusted mean? Fox Business reported GM sales down 18.5% and making it sound horrible, while at the same time CNBC reported an 8% decline and made it sound amazingly good. They also pointed out that Lexus sales are down 20%. Hah!

[HotCarNut]

Generally good news, especially compared with the pounding Ford took.

[Hitman1970]

LaCrosse 2,651 3,814 -30.5 -21.8 21,170 23,121 -8.4

Ouch. Invicta cannot get here soon enough. I wonder if the loss of CXS aggravated this.

Lexus alone sold more hybrids than GM BTW.

[Fusion2.3H]

The H4 cant come soon enough for Hummer, even the H3 is down.

[jaywestfall]

More proof that "gotta have" offerings will take care of the market share problem

[osv_alero]

Did I miss something. Did it say GM's share of the market went up by two points?

[hotrod1949]

Much better than I expected,hopefully they continue to work top balance production to sales.Now I would be interested in seeing a field stock summary.

[cbennie2]

Originally Posted by T-Type

Considering the state of the economy, this appears to be rather good news for GM. However I see no mention of Trucks/SUVs. I imagine it's a bloodbath.

HUMMER took a bath...down 50+%

GMC only down by 25%

Chevy only down by 13,000...almost a wash for the volume...

The one i find interesting, is Impala's numbers. Down some 50% for the month!!!

[BigThreeForever]

Nowhere near as apocalyptic as I feared, though the hits are being taken in the profitable sectors - i.e., trucks.

The rate of cash burn is my great fear for the General.

[mobyss]

Wow, this actually isn't as bad as almost everyone expected. The volume is clearly in Malibu, G6, Cobalt, HHR. Trucks down only about 20% or so - how much of that due to the 72 hour sale?

Very interesting.

Given Ford's performance and the expected Chrysler numbers, I'm less likely to believe GM is going to be the first of the "Big 3" to disappear. Maybe Ford absorbing Chrysler now, killing the truck overlap, and rolling the minivans, RWD sedans and Jeeps into the Blue Oval family?

[crooner214]

Originally Posted by I-Love-Pontiac

What does adjusted mean? Fox Business reported GM sales down 18.5% and making it sound horrible, while at the same time CNBC reported an 8% decline and made it sound amazingly good. They also pointed out that Lexus sales are down 20%. Hah!

I would guess that, though 18.5% and 8% are very different numbers, both of those reports include the truck sales. This GM Media release seems to only be concerned with cars and crossovers (and HHR, of course).